Life — December 15, 1910 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

*LIPE: “OCI BEE a 777). SNe From the Slums of Paris to the Mount of Olives YOUNG and beautiful artist, with emo- tional power and the graceful vivacity which robs French vice of its grossness, might have made endurable the principal part portrayed by Mrs. Leslie Carter in Mr. Rupert Hughes's “Two Women.” Mrs. Carter succeeded in mak- ing it in looks and rendering one of the most | repulsive impersonations scen on the New York stage in many a day. In this exhibition of femi- nine depravity she wat aided by the play which “has all the immorality inat characterized the for- eign dramas imported for this market thirty and forty years ago, but without the strong plot and finished construction which were the redeeming features of these now out of date dramatic works. It is not needful to go into further detail concerning this theatrical undertaking. Whatever success it may have will come from—to paraphrase Blunt— The sympathy of shop-girls who would weep Their shilling’s worth of woe in any cause, At any tragedy. The severest condemnation is duc to everyone concerned in this degradation of the legitimate stage. We have had settings, groupings, characters and costumes quite as offensive as those shown in the Bal Tabarin act in this play, but with- out the same brutality and slimy suggestion and seldom in the guise of legitimate drama. The constituted authorities are slow to act in matters of this sort. The law seems to furnish no speedy means of action and when it comes to police interference with the doings in a presumably reputable theatre they are perhaps dis- trustful of their own ability tc determine just where art leaves off and indecency begins. For obvious reasons the daily news- papers are reticent. There is also a theory that for those who write of the theatre to say in print that an entertainment offered to the public is immoral or indecent is to advertise it, and by attract- ing the patronage of the low-minded play directly into the hands of those who hope to profit by such enterprises. That is not our affair. It would be a failure in duty to the better public not to tell the truth. m=O omer HE same broad melodramatic material and the same appeal to time-worn devices in acting which marked “The Scarlet Pimpernel ” are to be found in “Henry of Navarre,” the second offering of Mr. Terry, Miss Neilson and their thoroughly English company. The loyalty of the English public to actors who have once gained their favor is proverbial and they are also loyal to the same methods of producing ef- fects which amused their fathers and themselves in their younger days. Therefore, when Mr. Terry, as the Gascon king at the court of Charles IX., burrs and guffaws in Yorkshire style to impress Marguerite with his rusticity, it has for the English a force of precedent and a local color, while to an American audience it is both incomprehensible and tiresome. Mr. Terry gives so many evidences of his being an casy and polished actor that it causes regret, and may explain the moderate success of the present engagement, that he has not seen fit to show himself in plays and parts better adapted to our liking. In “ Henry of Navarre” Miss Neilson is content to wear picturesque costumes and be a striking figure in the delightful tableaux with which the play abounds. The other members of the company are reliable, if not distinguished, in their work. Although America and England have grown to be com- paratively close together the English language does not seem to gain any closer relationship to the American and many lines as enunciated by these actors were made obscure in their meaning. The play itself twines about the historical massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Eve and the plot concerns itself with the plottings of Katherine de Medici against Henry and the infatuation of the Duc de Guise for Henry's wife. These allow the use of attempted poisonings, combats, escapes and other good, old-fashioned dramatic material to an un- limited extent. Its handsome costumes and settings make the play picturesque and in its entirety it is far from uninteresting. o * Oo * G € 6 OR a little while it seemed as though Miss Olga Nethersole, impressed either by the theme of the play or by the emi- nence of being permitted to be a star on the stage of the New Theatre, might lay aside her posings and her mannerisms and try sincerely to realize the intensely dramatic possibilitics of the character of Mary of Magdala. But it was not to be. In the first act, in spite of her barbaric Oriental trappings, she was at moments simple and natural in speech, but she quickly came back to her posturing and to the monotonous singing delivery of her lines which have in recent years robbed her of the power to stir her audiences. She is far better equipped by temperament and looks for this part than Mrs. Fiske was, but even so the latter did at times move the feelings of her hearers, which Miss Nethersole never did for an instant. The acting honors of the performance went to Mr. Arthur Forrest, who was seen in the first act only and in the character of an elderly Roman in retirement and finding his joys in phi- losophy. The rather long speech allotted to him was delivered OUR FIRELESS COOKER